1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a terminal device for optical fibers such as a connector plug and a connector receptacle.
More specifically, this invention relates to a terminal device for optical fibers which is provided with ferrules to be connected to the end portions of optical fibers and includes a mechanism for preventing damage, for example breakage, of the optical fibers and also avoiding a decrease in light transmittance which may be caused by bending of the optical fibers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a conventional terminal device for optical fibers, the end portions of the optical fibers are connected to ferrules provided in the terminal device.
The conventional device, however, has the following problems to be solved.
In detaching two connected terminal devices, for example a connector plug and a connector receptacle, it is frequently the practice to grasp optical fibers instead of the frames of these devices. The pulling force exerted on the optical fibers in this case may act on both the strands and coverings of the optical fibers and result in breakage of the strands, or may result in improper positioning of the strands in the terminal devices.
Furthermore, it sometimes happens that the strands stretch owing to thermal expansion and a force is generated to push the strands into the inward portions of the terminal devices. It has been proposed on the other hand to provide ferrules elastically with respect to frames in order to ensure intimate connection of the optical fibers in an optical fiber connector. In such a case, the excessive lengths of strands exist within the terminal devices and consequently the strands are bent. Bending of the strands undesirably causes a decrease in the light transmittance of the optical fibers.
As information transmitting systems become complex, necessity arises to mount and detach a plurality of optical fibers on and from various devices. If in such a case the optical fibers are mounted and detached independently from each other, the mounting and detaching operations become complex, and moreover, the lengths of the plurality of optical fibers become non-uniform. As a result, the load will be concentrated on a specific optical fiber and may break it.